Problems with my K8N-E Deluxe

[Spook]

So, Im building my 1st AMD system in awhile, the last one was in the days of the VIA266 Chipsets, what a nightmare there.

So, this time i decided to steer clean of VIA, and went with an NForce 3 250. the Asus A8N-E Deluxe MB.

I picked up a 3.2G Clawhammer, and allready had 4 sticks of 512Meg Mushkin Level II Black CAS 2 222 ram, and used 2x512 at a time for testing.

Put the system together, and 1st issue that poped up was checksum errors from the bios. I changed the settings to manual, and set the settings on the RAM a little lower, 2.5 336.

This allowed me to install the OS, and get going. Now I tweaked the RAM settings a little higher, basically a CAS 2, 236, and this allowed me to get into the OS, but would not pass several hours(4-5) of 3Dmark2k1se loop testing. backed the settings down again, to 2.5 336, and these allowed me to test out to 12+ hours before i quit the test. So, it seems stable at the lower ram settings.

Thought I'd try another bios revision, 1003, started with 1001, and besides having the same RAM issues, a new problem cropped up. The drive on the 2nd SATA connector would disappear after a hard or soft reboot. It would reappear if i powered down the system, and powered back on after several seconds. Tried Beta Bios's 1003.005, and 1003.009 with the same results.

So, I'm thinking there is a problem with the MB, and its time to switch this thing out before it eats up any more of my time.

Anyone have any more ideas?

 

[jkresh]

did you manualy set the ram voltage or leave it at auto? Raising it to 2.7 might help with your timings. As for the second sata, that seems strange, are you using the built in (next to cpu) ro the raid (near by front panel connectors)? I am using both built in without issues with the 1003 bios. Also are you using all 3 ram slots? If so try setting it it to 2T in bios (i think it defaults to 1) which might let you hit better timings.

 

[mechBgon]

What voltage is your memory running at? If it's at Auto, kick it up to 2.7 volts to start with. This ain't your daddy's PC2100 here

 

[Spook]

I kicked up the voltage to 2.6v, and have done 2.7v, but even at 2.7v I get Checksum errors with CAS 2 222. I tried 2.7v, and CAS2 232 settings last night, and it still crashed to desktop after about 4 hours of 3DMark testing.

I'm using the 2 Black SATA connectors in the middle of the MB. I believe those are the NF3 chipset SATA interfaces. The other 4 are red, and I believe they are the Promise RAID connectors, close to the Front panel connectors.

The 2nd SATA drive only disappears from CMOS after reboots, not on a cold start. The CMOS gets hung looking for the 2nd SATA drive, and will finally give up and boot off the 1st SATA drive. If you check CMOS it does not have the 2nd drive listed.

 

[mechBgon]

If it were me (which it is, since I have a K8N-E Deluxe), I would let the memory run Auto timings and get on with my life

 

[Spook]

Auto-Run settings = Checksum errors... I can only assume its picking up that the ram is CAS 2 222, because the manual setting CAS 2 222, gives the same problems.

 

[mechBgon]

My RAM is 2326, so maybe that explains why it's working fine for me.

 

[BuckNaked]

Originally posted by: mechBgon
My RAM is 2326, so maybe that explains why it's working fine for me.

Not to hijack this thread, but mechBgon, whats your impression of this board so far?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Spook]

Success... Changed the MB today, and Autosettings for the RAM work now... I'll be trying the updated bios later...

I'll keep you updated. Must have been a bad MB... Guy said it was the 1st one he had returned.